Stream Screens to SimFly Pad
Many panels in SimFly Pad include screen streaming functionality. For example, in the A320 panel, you can stream the PFD, ND, UPPER ECAM, and LOWER ECAM simultaneously.
Things to Know
SimFly Linker uses the pop-out window mechanisms in MSFS and X-Plane together with Windows window capture to stream content such as the PFD and ND to SimFly Pad. Since there is currently no automatic pop-out mechanism, you need to manually pop out the target window during setup.
Steps
On the Cockpit page of SimFly Pad, click “Connect” in the upper left corner. Select the screen you want to stream and click the “Connect” button in the middle of the screen. When the screen prompts “Waiting for the window to be popup,” proceed to the next step.
After SimFly Pad prompts “Waiting for the window to pop up,” switch to MSFS. Hold down the right ALT key, move your mouse over the screen you want to stream, and click the left mouse button. (When you move the mouse over it, the cursor changes to a magnifying glass icon. If holding the right ALT key still does not let you click to pop out the window, see the common issues section below.)
After clicking the left mouse button, the corresponding game screen will briefly appear as a pop-up window. Wait a moment, and SimFlyPad will automatically hide this window and start transmitting the image data.
Install Virtual Monitor Driver [Optional]
SimFly Pad not only supports displaying pop-out windows from the simulator, but for many touch-enabled windows—such as the B777’s MFD and the EFB—you can also directly control them with touch gestures in SimFly Pad.
However, due to technical reasons, this feature requires you to install a virtual display monitor. You can go to the Tools page in SimFlyLinker and click Install Driver to install the virtual display driver. Once the driver is installed, you can click the Add button below to add a virtual display.
The virtual display will automatically reset after you restart your system.
By default, SimFlyLinker uses usbmmid_v2 as the virtual display driver solution. In addition, SimFly Linker also supports the VDD solution. Please refer to this document for more information.
Use an Existing Monitor as a Virtual Display
If you do not want to install a virtual display driver, or you simply prefer another setup, you can choose one of your existing monitors and use it as the virtual display instead, as shown below.
Use with MSFS Pop Out Panel Manager
MSFS Pop Out Panel Manager and SimFly Linker may both try to adjust window positions in some cases. When used together, this can cause conflicts and lead to window position issues, such as SimFly Linker crashing or the streamed screen turning black.
You can go to the Settings page in SimFly Linker and set Pop Out Window Location to "Don't Hide".
Common Issues
[MSFS] Cannot pop out the window
When press the right ALT key and move the mouse over the corresponding screen, the mouse icon does not change.
This may be because you have accidentally changed the binding of the right ALT key. You can go to the Control Settings in MSFS, search for “NEW UI WINDOW MODE,” and rebind it.
Error: "Please add a virtual monitor first."
This is because you are attempting to stream a screen that supports touch controls, such as the B787’s MFD or the A320’s EFB. Before streaming these screens, you need to add a virtual monitor in SimFlyLinker. You can follow these steps:
Relaunch SimFlyLinker as an administrator, go to the Tools page, and click Install to install the Virtual Monitor driver.
Click the Add button below to add a virtual monitor.
(Optional) Open This PC and go to Display Settings to ensure that the newly added virtual monitor’s resolution is set to 1920x1080 with a 100% scaling ratio, as shown in the image below.
“unstable network” or “FPS is too low!” shows immediately
By default, the streaming window is hidden off-screen to reduce interference. However, on a small number of PCs, when these screens are hidden, they no longer render images, resulting in the inability to obtain image data during streaming.
Solution 1: Change the pop-out window location.
You can adjust the popup window's hiding strategy in SimFlyLinker according to the diagram below:
Hidden by default.
Move the popup window to a virtual monitor. (Note: This method requires you to first add a virtual monitor on the Tools page of SimFlyLinker.)
Do not hide.
After switching the option to 2 or 3, the problem should be resolved. If it still persists, please contact us and provide your graphics card information and system details (graphics card model, driver version, system version).
Solution 2: Cancel Extend Display Mode
This method is based on feedback from a user and may not work for everyone.
If you are using the laptop with an external monitor, you can try pressing ALT+P to exit the extended display mode and see if the “UNSTABLE NETWORK” issue fixed.
“Unstable network” appears after 1-3 minutes of streaming.
Unlike the previous issue, this problem occurs after 1-3 minutes of streaming.
We have received feedback from a very small number of users experiencing this issue. Their final solution was to replace the 4 memory sticks they were using (4x16GB) with 2 memory sticks, which resolved the problem.
[Android] After flying for a while, the streaming FPS drops.
We have received a few user reports about this issue, but the cause is not yet fully understood. If you encounter this problem, you can click on the corresponding screen, then click the Disconnect icon in the top-right corner to stop the current streaming session. After that, simply click Connect again to reconnect.
Streaming image stuttering or high latency 🐢
For iOS and Android versions, due to technical reasons, their streaming strategies differ.
On the iOS platform, streaming does not compress the image, which results in higher bandwidth requirements (e.g., streaming a single G1000 screen requires approximately 30~50Mb of bandwidth). Therefore, we strongly recommend connecting your SimFly Pad device to a 5G wireless network. For reference, the theoretical maximum bandwidth of a 5G signal is 1300Mb.
On the Android platform, the streamed image is compressed, so the network requirements are lower. However, since the compression is performed on the PC side, it consumes some CPU resources.
If you are using an NVIDIA graphics card, you could change to Viden Encode option to "GPU" on SimFlyLinker's settings page to lower your CPU cost.
Regardless of the platform, we strongly recommend that you connect your SimFly Pad device to a 5G Wi-Fi signal. Compared to a 2.4G wireless signal, 5G offers lower latency and a more reliable network connection.
[iOS] Connection broken after a few minutes
It is reported that on some iOS devices, AirDrop can monopolize the Wi-Fi bandwidth, causing other connections to drop or be disconnected. To resolve this, you can:
Turn off AirDrop (and Bluetooth) on your iOS device.
Log in to your router’s management site and change the Wi-Fi channel to another.
Last updated